An elite running club based in Carrboro, NC
just ran this today … Lone Pine Hill
3 X Lone Pine hill then directly into Tenney Circle; jog down hill recovery (too bad there’s no elevation chart b/c Lone Pine is so steep you want to cry - or laugh - it’s so ridiculous. Straight uphill for 2 1/2 minutes … waaayyyy steeper than stadium steps, ridiculous).
This was definitely a MEAL of a workout.
what’s your favorite meal?
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I realize CAC already raced in Charlotte (Tyler in a 1,500m near-PR of 3:56) and at Wake Forest (Brock and Brent both in the “Hey-I’m-not-a-miler” 1,500m), but I don’t think of outdoor track season as starting until Raleigh Relays at NC State .
I don’t know what it is about this event, but I look so forward to it year after year … as spectator and coach and lover of track and field. Maybe it’s seeing grumpy Rollie Geiger tooling around on his golf cart, still going strong as a distance force in coaching; maybe it’s the smell of freshly-mown onion grass on the thrower’s fields [which means spring is finally hear]; maybe it’s all the memories of standing on the backstretch watching lap after lap of true distance men straining to find that elusive PR zone in the 10k. The stands are empty, the lights are dim, the air is chilly and getting colder, everyone is shivering and hungry because the 10k doesn’t start until 9:00pm, but the die-hards don’t leave; the purists wait and watch on the rail as the lead pack forms, as the rest of field strings out into single file, as people drop out or drop off the pace … and then around 6,000m it happens - the race within the race begins! Will you have that perfect “on” night when you go through the 5k at or near your PR, then freakin’ negative split the second half?! Is this going to be THE year? Will this be the race where all the summer miles and fall hills and winter strength finally pays off? I guess what I love about Raleigh Relays is that it is the track meet of promise.
I can’t wait until Friday!
see you on the backstretch.
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Although I generally experience running to be fun and a way to relieve stress, the last week or two I have experienced the benefits of running in way I don’t normally do. The stress of deadlines for which I’m not prepared has been weighing on me greatly and I’ve found that after my recent runs I really have felt as if a big fat monkey was lifted from my back. My mood post-run was markedly better, and I had renewed hope that I could produce quality work quickly and efficiently. I was revitalized.
Amazing. Now, to find out if, indeed, running is allowing me to actually work more quickly and efficiently!
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So the “M” is what we are calling it, I guess. A year ago, I did this workout. It was my first practice with CAC, as a guest. I had been doing long runs with Marc, but those runs, while tough, did not prepare me for the lung-searing “M” workout. Getting its name from the geometric representation of the fartlek “on” times, 1-2-3-2-1-2-3-2-1 “on”, 1 min “off”, this workout might better be associated with other Ms - like masochism or madness. In my training lexicon, fartlek was before associated with early season “speed play”, as it translates from the Swedish, with first hard efforts in the fall designed to tax you only slightly. But make no mistake, this is no speed play, this is speed work.
After introducing myself to the circle of CAC runners, I toed the line (in trainers, like Marc). I already had it in my mind that I could run with all of these guys, a little bit of pride overestimating the fitness that came from 3 months of base training - after a 7 year lay-off. Belief is a powerful thing and it was my friend for exactly one loop of Mason Farm. After that, it became my ruthless enemy, as I clawed and dug to save face in front of Joan and the rest of the team. Those last two loops were a humbling reminder of the difficulty of this sport and its tendency to force the truth out of our bodies, if not our minds.
The pain of the “M” was not over, however. That night, I woke up in agony. A growing, bloody blister under my toenail was threatening its life - I had to act to save the nail. Quickly, I heated a pin to a glowing red and stabbed it into my nail, melting through the solid and into the soft flesh underneath. A single drop of dark red came through, but was the pressure-relieving procedure a success? Sadly, it was not. Over the next months, the nail died, its roots having been extracted by the pressure I had sought to diminish. Finally it fell off.
A year later this toenail is gnarled and rather odd-looking. It never grew in quite right.
A war mark. I guess. A badge of honor. Perhaps. A reminder against foolish pride. Assuredly.
Then fall came and the “M” brought a torrential rain. Odd, since it didn’t really rain at all last fall.
What will the “M” bring this afternoon? I can’t wait to see.
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I used to have this expression: “Train fat, race lean” because I wasn’t able to maintain what my dad called my “fighting weight” all year round. I needed the extra calories and fat stores to endure three grueling workouts per week without getting injured or sick or just plain explunctified (I believe that word comes from Mark Twain). I trained for two peaks a year, with the first peak - during cross-country season - being more of a plateau and the final peak during outdoor track being the razor sharp point. A true peak. If I had charted my weight (which I don’t because I don’t own a scale; I just know), year in and year out it would have looked like this:
Aug. Sept., Oct. Nov. - 103 lbs.
(a little chubby, yes?)
Dec. - 99 lbs.
Jan., Feb. March. - 101 lbs.
April, May - 99 lbs.
June - 97 lbs.
(lean)
Anyone who knows me would laugh at these precise figures because I have always been able to eat whatever I want, and I have never weighed myself. I have pretty much been the same size since 8th grade - give or take a pregnancy or two [and I could write volumes about the dead-end road of weight-obsession for runners]. So, here’s what I want to make clear. Getting lean is more about an attitude toward racing than it is about calories in and calories out. When I start getting excited about a goal race, when the longed-for event is on the horizon … my metabolism goes berserk! Adrenalin is shooting through my system, burning and churning with excitement and, yes, nervousness. My engine is revving all day long because I can’t WAIT to line up and show off all the hard work I’ve put in. My fighting weight comes naturally at this point in the season because racing at the highest level brings out the highest level of performance. I am lean and hungry to race fast.
I wonder if others experience this same phenomenon.
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Yesterday afternoon on a rainy run with Joan (my first run back after an awful week-long fight with the flu), I ran through every muddy puddle in my path. Dirt splotches dressed the back of my legs up to the middle of my back. When I arrived home and toweled off, I thought back to high school and a quirky tradition that was one of my favorites.
At Seton Catholic High School in Plattsburgh, NY, we had a tradition of dirtying our shoes. If anyone on the team showed up in brand new running shoes, shiny and unworn, then they were subject to at least one muddy scuff from every other member on the team. To illustrate, if I was guilty of clean shoes, I would have to stand patiently while the other athletes formed a line and one-by-one wiped the bottom of their shoes on the top of mine. Veterans on the team were accustomed to this practice and enjoyed it. But NEW members of the team were consistently incredulous. At times we would have to chase kids and catch them to enforce the tradition. Was this hazing? Probably.
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This seems to be a typical question asked amongst teammates during a cool down after a race. And Rob posed this question to me when I was running with them after the Run for the Oaks 5k in Raleigh that the team sweeped in today. Now, normally I during my cool downs take this time to think about the race and everything that had happened and I contemplate and digest and take it in and then okay it’s processed and I have some sort of opinion formed….so when Rob asked me this in the middle of our cool down I answered:
“I don’t know how I feel about it yet,” and followed with the above explanation, “but I think it was probably one of the worst races I’ve done.”
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After 6 and a half years, it’s over. We had a nice run, actually over a thousand nice runs, during that time, but that’s not to say things were never rocky. She caused me to miss a train, oversleep for a race, run alone, and she even abandoned me mid-run on a number of occasions. Our relationship was one of unspoken understanding, but no more. As of Thursday, I retired my very first running watch.
It wasn’t me, it was the watch. I salvaged it on a number of occasions: fixing the band holder with twine, replacing the battery multiple times, drying the innards after testing the water resistance too much, even stuffing it in four socks instead of trashing it after it began to beep uncontrollably for days. But after 13 seasons, 3 teams, 3 continents, and more opportunities than I can remember to let her go, the time has come. Sure, the new Ironman Triathlon Timex is slimmer and more digital, but it’ll never replaced the first one. Somehow I never found out her name and trying to do so now just doesn’t seem right.
So here’s to you old watch. Enjoy retirement, but don’t think I won’t come crawling back at some point when this new one acts up, just like you did.
Now the question, what’s the longest any of you have gone without replacing your watch or what have you done to (unnecessarily) prolong its use?
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We’re right at our one-year anniversary with CAC, marked by the annual 5k road race time trial at Run for the Oaks. I am bummed that after years and years of racing on the same figure-8 course in downtown Raleigh, the 2008 Oaks race will be on a new course. Will it be faster, slower, as fast? I have been giving specific advice on how to run the old course, and this new course is simply an out-and-back … with very little elevation change (click here, and then click on “race route” to see the new route). I hate that the route has been altered because I find it so useful to run the same race every year to guage one’s progress. It’s kind of like the chalk hill workout I had my daughter do yesterday afternoon [she missed her school practice, so I set her up on the hill out in front of our house]. On a long road hill, it goes like this:
(carrying a piece of chalk in your hand) run uphill hard for 30 seconds, mark your end point with a chalk line
jog back down, then run up hard for 45 seconds, making sure you are AT or past the first chalk line at 30 seconds - draw a line at 45 seconds.
jog back down, then run up hard for 60 seconds, making sure you are at or past the 1st chalk line at 30 seconds, at or past the 2nd chalk line at 45 seconds - draw another line at 60 seconds.
jog back down, then run up hard for 75 seconds, making sure you are at or past each of the checkpoints: 30,45,60, (etc.)
jog back down … continue to 90, then back down the ladder with 75, 60, 45, 30 seconds. Short and sweet.
The purpose of this workout is to have accountability on each hill. The lines are your task-masters. You must hit each mark to keep your effort honest … and, ideally, you want to be faster on each mark (making the workout harder and harder as it goes).
Similarly, you want to hit your race markers faster each year. Jason ran 4:07 at Virginia Tech last year and this year he ran 4:00. Sarah ran 1:27 for a half-marathon the year before her 1:23:30 at OBX. Direct comparisons year-to-year are a necessary part of any successful training program (until you get old, but that’s another story) … that’s why I hate that The Oaks course has changed (unless, of course, it’s faster!!).
post script: click here for 2008 results
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This morning, as Sarah and I were going around the Pumpkin Loop we had the (unfortunate?) experience of finding the skeletal remains of a deer leg, hoof and all. Initially, Sarah stepped on it and thought it was a branch/stick, but when we looped around for a more relaxed lap, we realized it was, in fact, not a stick.
Clearly, this post was not particularly deep or intellectual, but normally I find interesting things on my run in the woods, like cute furry animals or pretty birds or blooming flowers, and it was striking to find such an intact specimen of something rather dark.
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